


Accidental Romance

by navaan



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Amnesia, Avengers Vol. 3 (1998), First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memory Loss, Misunderstandings, Romance, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 16:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8898808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Tony doesn’t know much of anything anymore, but some things seem obvious





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Steel_Wings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steel_Wings/gifts).



> Written for the prompt Any: Either Steve or Tony gets amnesia and jumps to the (wrong) conclusion that they're dating each other. For the cap_ironman Holiday Exchange 2016

He walked around the room looking at everything carefully. Of course, he had been told that it wasn’t _really_ his first time here he _lived_ here - but he had no memory of it. He had no memory of his own home. His whole life was a black void of forgotten experiences and people and it should have been scary, but mostly it was just frustrating.

“Are you alright, Tony?”

He did not stop his inspection of the room and kept the frustrated sigh from fighting its way out of his chest, barely. There were a lot of things he didn’t know for sure right now, but he knew for a fact that he was not alright. The worried look the woman - Carol, her name was - gave him, was what held him back. He knew he did not want her to worry about him any more than she already was, even if he had no idea who she’d been to him, still _was_ to him, most likely. Right now she was a stranger to him, but she cared and even a blind man could see it. 

He tried to shrug it off, tried to smile. His gaze fell on a picture hanging on one of the walls in the room. In the picture he was wearing a black suit and heb had an arm slung around the shoulder of a blond man he recognized. Steve was wearing a blue - red white and blue, really - body suit and his hair was a bit unruly. Both of them were smiling widely at the camera. For him it was another lost memory, but with the few memories he’d built since waking up in a bed inside a med station that wasn’t in a hospital but inside this building, his mind a blank slate, the picture was also a reminder. 

Fingers brushing against his, a hand gripping his tightly. Steve’s worried face when Tony looked up at him in confusion not able to even remember his own name. He hadn’t let go of his hand, when panic had set in, when scans had been made and people had tried to trigger his memories.

Those were his first memories. His first new memories.

He’d felt helpless and confused and yet - not alone. Like someone was there to give his support… more than support.

The calm exterior had only been betrayed by distress hidden in his clear blue eyes. _Do you know my name?_

Forcing down the lump in his throat at the memory, he asked: “Where… Where is…?”

She followed his gaze and smiled softly. “Steve?” Some of the worry seemed to leave her, her shoulders straightening out. “He wanted to be here, but he was called away. Someone needs to keep the world safe, right?”

He nodded, although he wasn’t sure what that even meant. Steve had explained to him that all of them were some kind of heroes. Superheroes. He’d had no idea what to do with the information at the time and he was still at a loss. Restless he turned away again to look around the room. They were all friends, Carol had explained and his inspection of the room showed there were more pictures of him and his friends here. He must really care for them, for what they were doing, feel pride to be part of it. In this room alone there were at least three pictures of him and the group he now knew (again) were called the Avengers. But this one picture seemed more intimate, more personal. Just him and Steve. Smiling. Happy.

He had questions.

“You’re good friends,” Carol explained. “The best. He’ll be back soon and you can ask him yourself about all the things you’ve accomplished together. You’re the glue that holds the Avengers together.”

It sounded nice, but too simple.

This morning he hadn’t even known that his name was Tony Stark, and now he felt he _knew_ that there was something more here. Something important. Something he really wanted to remember. Like the memory was somewhere there, but he couldn’t get to it, and came up blank when he tried.

“I don’t remember any of it,” Tony reluctantly admitted, although there wasn’t anything _to_ admit. They all knew. They all knew everything about him. He was the only one who couldn’t remember.

“You will.”

That she sounded utterly convinced was a small comfort. People he didn’t know had scanned him and prodded at him already and their best bet had been that something in his own living space would just jog his memory.

“What is going to happen if I don’t remember a thing?”

“You’re still Tony Stark,” Carol said. “You’ll figure something out.”

Her smile was sincere. Tony just wanted to run from it all. “I’m sorry,” he said, “Carol.” It helped to repeat the names of the people he had been supposedly very close to. Like that was the little important bit that grounded him in a fabric of relationships he didn’t feel part of. “Nothing is jogging any memories.”

“That’s alright. You’ve been through quite the ordeal.”

He had no clear memory of that either.

He had a faint bruise on his left cheekbone that spoke of some struggle that must have occurred at some recent point in time and some even fainter marks on his wrists that he’d been told where bruises left from restraints. “Why would anyone even go through so much trouble?” he wondered.

Suddenly two strong, lithe arms came up around him and he found his nose buried in a throng of blonde long hair. Carol had launched herself at him so suddenly, he could have sworn her feet hadn’t even touched the ground. His mind tried to file away that information about… powers, but for a moment it was just all too much to take in. What kind of life had he lived to be among all these people with amazing gifts? He returned the hug.

He patted Carol’s back, feeling bad for the lack of memory.

 _I wish I could remember,_ he thought.

Awkwardly he extracted himself when she let go. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s been a long few days. I’m just glad we have you back.”

He nodded and then decided it was the right time to walk over to that comfy looking too big sofa and actually sit on it for a while.

It was exactly as comfortable and nice as it looked. At least whoever Tony Stark was when he had his memory, he knew how to pick the right furniture. 

If he had indeed been the one to pick it out…

“So Steve is…?” He still had no idea how to ask the real question that was hidden there. 

But Carol, happy to change the subject, launched right into it: “You know, he will probably want to tell you himself, but I could tell you a few of your adventures until he gets back…”

It sounded like a welcome distraction.

* * *

He fell asleep right there on the sofa, utterly overwhelmed and exhausted.

“Should we wake him?” 

“He’s not concussed?”

He knew Carol and Janet were taking turns at looking in on him. Someone put a blanket over him at some point. 

“Any word from Steve?”

“Not yet. He and Thor promised to check in as soon as they had leads on the people responsible.”

Steve.

Steve.

Some of the things Carol had just told him where bleeding together with things that could be memories.

He just wanted Steve to get back here, so he could find out more.

After all he remembered the shocked look and the worry in the blue eyes from when he’d woken up and not remembered anything. Steve had been sitting with him. Apparently now Steve was looking for whoever had done this to Tony.

From what Carol had implied this was who they were.

Friends. Heroes. Looking out for each other. Having each other’s back.

He finally drifted to sleep.

* * *

By the time Steve arrived back in New York a day later, Tony was up and about, requesting briefings about his business and media relations. He’d had two check-ups just this morning and someone - he was getting better at putting faces to names, but could still not keep apart all the scientists he was supposed to know - had suggested he ask for a consult from Wakandan scientists who were working on a project with his own company… the one with his name.

He was so in over his head, trying to learn and adapt as fast as he could, that he didn’t even notice that someone had taken his place inside the door watching him work.

“That’s very you, already back at work, before you have been cleared by your doctors.”

He swivelled around in his chair. This time the man looked freshly showered and clean, dressed in casual clothes. “Steve,” he said and smiled. Just the man he’d been waiting for. Since waking up pieces of this puzzle had been falling into place bit by bit.

Steve gave him a slightly hopeful smile. “You remember?”

It was the hope that propelled him forward faster. Steve even came forward to meet him halfway, caught him by the arm to get a good look at him. 

“I don’t really,” Tony admitted and watched Steve’s face fall just for a second, before he recovered. “I remember you from when I woke up.”

“I have some good news then. We have found the AIM splinter group that took you and we found the machine they used on you.” They were back to the slightly hopeful smile. Tony liked that. “I’m sure the Hanks and Reed can do something with this.”

He sighed. He hated not knowing and even more not understanding things. He hated that he couldn’t even remember what exactly he had forgotten. He hated asking the questions.

And Steve was right here. The person who had sat with him when he’d been unconscious; who had run out as soon as he’d been alright to get a lead on how to help him and bring the people who did this to justice; the person whose picture was all over his own apartment. And he was smiling down at him relieved and glad to see him alright.

He leaned up to kiss him.

Acting just on a hunch. Impulsive.

Perhaps he was impulsive. He couldn’t be sure.

The moment their lips met was electric and just what Tony had been hoping for, but then the slightly taller man froze and held still and he feared he had miscalculated.

Then strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and the kiss was returned.

Relieved, he let himself sink forward into the arms of the person he was sure was his lover.

Something in his mind just clicked. This all felt so right. He hadn’t been wrong.

“God,” Steve pulled away. “Tony, oh, we need to stop… I’m sorry.”

It was Tony’s turn to freeze and stare. “Sorry…?” The dread of not really knowing what he was doing was back. He was in blank space without a map again and Steve looked at him so apologetically it hurt.

“I can’t…. You don’t know what you’re doing. I can’t take advantage of you.”

Caught between too many options to get the new puzzle pieces set to the right places on the board of his blank mindscape it took him a moment to let that sink in. Only then did he realize, Steve hadn’t actually pushed him away or in fact even let go of him. 

“I… We’re not…?” he tried to ask and suddenly blushed when Steve’s eyes widened in surprise. “Carol said I gave you mouth to mouth despite it putting my own life at risk or something...” He let the sentence trail of, looked for possible things to say. He had no idea what their relationships were. If they weren’t together like that, perhaps they were….

“I’m not…. I’m not complaining,” Steve said and he had still not let go of Tony’s shoulders. “I just want you to know what you’re getting into, that this is what you really want… wanted before this. Not because you remember me sitting by your bed...”

“Oh,” Tony said, dumbly. Everything told him that this was what he wanted. But Steve had a point.

“Good then, that we have all the data to help Tony now.” When he looked over to the newest voice appearing at his door, he saw a woman with brown short hair who waved at him. He recognized her as Jan and tried to not look sheepish.

“We do?” Steve said, his grip on Tony not faltering for a second.

“Hank just sent me up to tell you. Well done, Cap.” It sounded like she was talking about his recovery of whatever machine the bad people had used on him, but the look she was giving them implied she also meant something else.

Huh.

He really had miscalculated.

But perhaps he hadn’t been too far off.

He smiled.

Things still felt very right to him.

“Alright,” he agreed. “Let’s get this over with and talk.”

“Memory or not,” Steve warned. “I’m going to hold you to this promise, Tony. Just so you know.”

It wasn’t the talking Tony was looking forward to. It was the _knowledge_ , the memories - but also the kissing. “Fine with me.” He grinned and strode from the room with purpose for the first time since he’d woken without any memories to guide him.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [De Profundis (The Wartime Romance Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494723) by [Woad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woad/pseuds/Woad)




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